buildOn

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buildOn is a not-for-profit organization working to break the cycle of poverty, illiteracy and low expectations through service and education. buildOn is not a charity, it’s a movement. In the United States, we run intensive service learning programs in 40 underserved high schools in six major cities. Through these programs, buildOn empowers youth to transform their communities through high-impact service. Over the last 27 years buildOn has empowered more than 100,000 urban youth to contribute more than 2.1 million hours of service that has touched the lives of more than 1.0 million people living below the U.S. poverty line. 97% of these youth graduate high school and nearly all of these go to college, even though 40% of the kids going to the same schools drop out.

Teams of buildOn students from our programs also fan out across the world to help build schools in the economically poorest countries on the planet. We have now built nearly 1,300 schools in Haiti, Nicaragua, Mali, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Malawi and Nepal. More than 2 million children, parents and grandparents have attended these schools so far, while more than 160,000 attend buildOn schools every day. 50% of all students are girls or women. Most importantly, community members have organized leadership committees and contributed more than 2.0 million volunteer work days to literally build their schools.